Working in an office involves a lot of debate, consideration and throwing out of ideas. Suggestions are brought forwards and then pulled apart, finding flaws and jumps in logic until the finished product is something that the collective generally agree might be possible or the idea is discarded entirely.
The problem with this method is that a lot of very good ideas can be lost because “it can’t be done” is used to mask “it hasn’t been done before” and the latter is often because “it hasn’t been tried before”. Even if that is not the case, things change and past experiences can be rendered inaccurate. Back when I was a student running events and being involved in the radio station we would decide something was a good idea and push through it – overcoming obstacles along the way forced us to create innovative solutions and all on a tight budget (because everything back then was on a tight budget). We found alternative means of funding events, worked at unusual marketing campaigns and forged links with people who had expertise we did not have and needed. It was very exciting and we achieved things that baffled some of the more experienced people who later remarked that what we were doing shouldn’t have been possible.
The point of all this? Moving to an office puts certain expectations on one’s behaviour which seems to quell some of these instincts. One of the great things about our Get Creative events is that the only “it can’t be done” limitations are “what will everyone do” and “we cannot achieve that in the time limit”. Whilst these do kill off some very good ideas (Kelvin’s FaceTent idea is one I regret not doing) it leaves a great deal of freedom to “just try it”. Today we went out and interviewed some students about our inPictures app and captured it on video. We did not discuss the questions at length, we did not worry about how to approach them, we did not put out a call for volunteers, we didn’t even worry too much about what we wanted to learn ahead of time. We simply went out and talked to people, making it up as we went along. It took two people roughly two hours and we learned a great deal and will probably use our experiences in future projects as well as this one.
So what I am saying is: try things. Be creative. Challenge what can be done. We are all used to doing this whilst creating things for the internet – do it with your office processes as well. In the words of George Bernard Shaw (or quoting an ancient Chinese proverb, depending on which site you read):
“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.”
